A Supervisory Control Architecture for Sea Grant I Rov

This paper describes a supervisory control system for remotely operated vehicles (ROV) and details its implementation on the Sea Grant I ROV. The Sea Grant I was donated to MIT in 1 9 8 2 in non-operating condition and by 1 9 8 6 was operable but only under manual control. The hardware and software of the current supervisory control system is built upon that which existed in 1986 . Those features of the old software which were good have been retained but the majority of the system software is either completely new or has been revised. The specific features of the new system are described in detail along with the system analysis which determined the method of software implementation. The new system is flexible in allowing the operator to choose the combination of control modes best suited to a particular task. Results of actual tests are provided which show that good control of the vehicle has been obtained in a fashion which is largely independent of operator experience. An example of water temperature monitoring is demonstrated. The supervisory control system which has been implemented on the Sea Grant I makes the ROV an excellent system for carrying out research in ROV control systems or in the applications of ROVs to underwater scientific research.